The mechanic got me in and back on the road in under half an hour. It turns out that one of the lines hadn't been tightened properly and was still leaking brake fluid. So they took care of it and wished me a good day.
While I'm certainly glad that they got me in so quickly, were able to fix the problem easily, and didn't even try to charge me (which was smart of them, considering they were the ones who improperly tightened the line), I did feel like they could've been a bit more apologetic about the whole incident. After all, we're talking about my brakes. That sort of slip-up could've had me unable to brake as I came upon slow-moving traffic on one of the interstates. Or it could have left me unable to stop at a red light. And even though it wasn't that major, it still meant that I had to postpone my travel plans for a day, rearrange my schedule to drive back to the mechanic, and spend the time -- which was inconvenient no matter how brief -- waiting for them to look at the problem and fix it.
Originally, the mechanic hadn't even planned on telling me what was wrong. He just pulled the car out front, walked in, and told me I was good to go. I had to ask him what the problem was. And then he told me matter-of-factly without so much as a "sorry about that." Call me crazy, but even the slightest admission of guilt over the original mistake would've been nice.
Of course, I should note that Louie, the guy who usually books appointments and otherwise interfaces with the customers, wasn't working today. I suspect if he had been, things would've been different. Louie's the kind of guy who thinks about these kinds of things and does his best to make sure the customer feels okay about everything. But geez, if the other guys in the shop can't even manage to acknowledge they screwed up and offer even a brief apology for it, maybe they should just close the garage on days Louie isn't there.
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